Bon Scott Producers Cannot Come To An Agreement With Amazon Studios

Producers of the much discussed Bon Scott biopic, Bon Scott - The Legend of AC/DC Unauthorised, have announced that they were unable to reach an agreement with Amazon Studios who optioned the story. Producer Michael Meltzer, who has himself worked on a dozen or so films, has worked tirelessly to secure a production deal for the highly-anticipated film, but has oft made clear that even a film of this pre-production popularity is difficult to get made.

Amazon Studios optioned the story fairly recently, but Bon Scott producers could not negotiate the terms that were acceptable to get the project greenlit. Similar issues persisted with NBCUniversal in London, although the issues that trumped that deal seemed to have been directly related to the fact that NBCUniversal's subsidiary now has controlling interest over AC/DC's music catalogue.

A source at High Voltage Productions in the United States commented that, "we have negotiated with some big names in the film industry for certain, but many of them are looking to budget $20M+ feature films, have a crack cast in place, and have 10%-20% secured funding in place prior to formulating a distribution deal and production bond. This isn't that type of film and has caused an ongoing impasse."

The source went on to add, "To our team, this is a true independent film, although we are now leaning very strongly towards an international television licensing deal or a network here in the U.S. It is prime for that wealthy investor fan who wants to make a movie of passion rather than the typical cookie-cutter, tenth-sequel franchise flick."

The film's star and principal writer, Rob Liotti, commented, "I haven't been shy about expressing the good and bad surrounding this project. Networks are starved for good content and more and more networks pop up weekly. Sooner or later, someone is going to have to address new content. The fact is that even projects are popular as this one are difficult to get produced to say the least. It is amazing what garbage is out there and on television as we speak, but... Bottom line is that a lot of AC/DC fans wanted instantaneous production results and a film to be ready in 12 months. Reality is that even many of the very well-performing films starring A-list actors and crews sometimes take years to be greenlit and enter principal photography."

AC/DC have also not been the biggest proponents of the project either. Prior to Malcolm Young's untimely medical condition and departure from the band, AC/DC's legal team and that of Albert Productions made very clear that they did not support the project. Furthermore, the Bon Scott Estate flatly refused any amount of money to cooperate with producers, thus making the project 'unauthorised' but certainly legal, according to legal scholars at Stanford University who reviewed the project's legalities.

Producers seem to be eying such networks as AXS, fuse, VH1, etc. in the United States, although it seem clear that given the international flavour of this project that it could easily end up a U.K. or Aussie production. It remains to be seen...

One thing is clear: fans want it, and producers want to make it.

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